if you want to do A-Levels, your school isn't failing you and all your friends are there, then staying at school is a no brainer.

But the dynamic changes at A-Level. Instead of being in 12 different classes a week, you'll be in 3 or 4. If you're a billy-no-mates in all of them and you hate your subjects, then you might suddenly feel quite alienated and miserable. This happened to me, and I did poorly (and needed to do several resits afterwards). I also fancied a girl to death who was no longer in any of my classes, who started going out with someone else, and I basically just stopped giving a fuck about grades. If you fancy someone, fucking tell them before it's too late.

At an FE college you're treated more like an adult. It's also less cliquey and there's little aspect of 'popularity' involved. But it's less sentimental.